Enhancing Education Accessibility and Fostering Innovative Teaching Methodologies

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) is a statutory body of the Department of Education. Their mission is to advise the Minister for Education and Skills on curriculum and assessment for early childhood education, primary and post-primary schools. This advice is generated through engagement with schools and educational settings, with committees and working groups and is informed by research, evaluation and foresight.

The NCCA required a redesigned website built on an up to date future-proof CMS platform. The new website needed to provide a comprehensive suite of resources to meet the specific needs of educators, students, and parents. Inclusivity and accessibility were emphasised as core principles in the new platform. All new templates and interfaces had to be designed and built to fully comply with and meet WCAG 2.1 accessibility guidelines.

Utilising Kentico’s Xperience platform, the new website has been designed and built to be a one-stop shop for all curriculum-related materials across primary, post-primary, and special education levels. The new platform allows NCCA to offer extensive resources, including detailed curriculum guidelines, lesson plans, interactive activities, and assessment tools, all tailored to the Irish educational context. It has also allowed for the designing of a website that is highly accessible and that meets all relevant accessibility guidelines.

The website has been future-proofed using the latest Kentico Core development model to deliver it, built on the Microsoft “ASP.NET Core” framework. This will ensure future compatibility with the next-generation platform Xperience by Kentico.

• • Site-wide multilingual capability was implemented, including integration with third-party translation services.
  • Kentico predictive search functionality was enabled on the search textbox.
  • Kentico’s Smart Search functionality provides a Site Search, enabling users to search for published content within the website.
  • Main navigation that displays up to four Level 1 pages and for Level 2 pages to be presented on a mega menu.
  • A custom-built clipboard section allows users to create a list of ‘favourite’ pages. Users are first authenticated to be able to have access to the clipboard.

The new curriculum online website emerges as a groundbreaking platform, designed with the unique power to inspire both educators and learners. This isn't just a website; it's a journey towards elevating educational standards and practices across Ireland, making it an indispensable resource for anyone eager to shape the future of learning. The launch of the website marks a pivotal moment in the evolution and transformation of the Irish educational landscape.